It appears that the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, tried to do some damage control today with Denmark after the president abruptly canceled his visit over the rejection of his suggestion that he wanted to buy Greenland.

The president is continuing his attacks on auto companies following the news that Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, and Honda made a deal with the state of California to reduce pollution. His latest tweet praises the “Legendary Henry Ford”:

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The Legendary Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan, the Founders of Ford Motor Company and General Motors, are “rolling over” at the weakness of current car company executives willing to spend more money on a car that is not as safe or good, and cost $3,000 more to consumers. Crazy!

The president’s tweets came hours after he repeated antisemitic tropes while criticizing American Jews who vote for Democrats.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Henry Ford would be very disappointed if he saw his modern-day descendants wanting to build a much more expensive car, that is far less safe and doesn’t work as well, because execs don’t want to fight California regulators. Car companies should know....

The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, has renewed his push for the Ukrainian government to investigate the president’s political opponents. This came months after Giuliani backed out of a trip to Ukraine after he faced criticism that he was mixing partisan politics with foreign policy:

Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel)

SCOOP: Months after he abandoned a trip to Ukraine to urge the new government to investigate TRUMP's rivals, @RudyGiuliani began secretly talking to a close aide to the new Ukrainian president (including at a meeting in Madrid) to push the investigations. https://t.co/UjSbxSlGIw

Over the last few weeks, Giuliani has spoken on the phone and held an in-person meeting, in Madrid, with a top representative of the new Ukrainian president, encouraging his government to ramp up investigations into two matters of intense interest to Trump.

One is whether Ukrainian officials took steps during the 2016 election to damage Trump’s campaign. The other is whether there was anything improper about the overlap between former Vice President Joseph Biden Jr’s diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and his son’s role with a gas company there.

Giuliani said he was acting as a private citizen, but had assistance from the US state department, according to the paper.

A reminder of a story that has received very little attention: the president of the United States recently mocked the accents of the leaders of South Korea and Japan at a fundraiser. The AP has published a piece with reactions from Asian Americans, who discussed their painful memories of racist mocking they’ve experienced in their lives:

Farrah Fazal (@FarrahFazal)

“When Amanda Berg heard reports that President Donald Trump mocked the accents of the leaders of South Korea and Japan at a recent fundraiser, it brought back painful memories from her childhood.” https://t.co/CVBd8MPd1f

Amanda Berg, a Korean American who grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, recalled kids doing the “stereotypical pulling at the eyes and the mocking accent.” It made her feel like she was a foreigner in her own community.

Berg, a registered Democrat, is among a growing and crucial bloc of Asian American voters leaning further to the left in the age of Trump, and his stunt, reported by the New York Post, angered her and many others.

“It empowers people who would be predisposed to doing that kind of thing anyway,” said Berg, a high school English teacher in Denver. “And it makes it acceptable to be openly, increasingly discriminating.”

In a speech to a veterans group today, Trump said he wanted to give himself the Medal of Honor:

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)

During his speech to a veterans group in Kentucky, Trump -- seemingly joking but who can be sure -- talks about giving himself the Medal of Honor. I'm surprised his bone spurs didn't flare up while doing so. pic.twitter.com/4dPxlSlUl7

If more than ten candidates qualify, the debate will take place over two nights. It’s unclear if that will happen at this stage:

Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve)

Per tracking from me and @ZachMontellaro: 10 candidates have already qualified. Tom Steyer (needs 1 2% poll) and Tulsi Gabbard (needs 2 2% polls) are on the doorstep, so again we could be looking at two debate stages, *randomly divided*.

Guardian reporter Abené Clayton has an in-depth look at the sweeping gun reform agenda proposed today by March for Our Lives:

The proposal released on Wednesday, Peace Plan for a Safer America, includes plans to reduce the number of firearms in civilian hands by 30%, create a mandatory federal gun buyback program for assault weapons, and re-examine the Heller decision – the 2008 supreme court ruling allowing private citizens to keep handguns in their homes.

“This plan is not geared toward Democrats or Republicans. It’s not about a party, it’s not about politics, it’s about saving lives and prioritizing that,” said Eve Levenson, federal programs manager at March for Our Lives.

“We’re looking to change the culture of gun violence and that is going to require doing some things that are going to make people at first think, ‘Oh no you’re going to take my guns’,” Levenson continued. “It’s not about what we’re against, it’s what we’re for,” she added.

Read the full story here:

March for Our Lives unveils sweeping gun reform agenda: 'The time is now'

Read more

And some additional insights from Lois Beckett, the Guardian’s senior reporter on gun policy:

Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett)

The youth-led gun control movement founded in Parkland is calling for an Australia-style ban and mandatory buyback of assault weapons. "All government-purchased gun inventory would be destroyed." https://t.co/2cMvalbJPQpic.twitter.com/3v5SNL1nyf

If 2020 Democratic candidates endorse the March for Our Lives Peace Plan, that means they support an Australia-style mandatory buyback/meltdown of millions of "assault weapons" and that they also want to revisit the Supreme Court's current interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to keep quiet came one week after he barred two Muslim congresswomen from visiting his country, following Trump’s public appeal.

Trump has continued today to say that Jews who vote Democratic are “disloyal to Jewish people and … very disloyal to Israel”. The silence from Republicans and others on Trump’s comments has provided a sharp contrast to the intense backlash Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has repeatedly faced for her criticisms of Israel.

Judge rules Trump can appeal lawsuit over foreign payments

A federal judge has just ruled that Trump can appeal rulings in a lawsuit that challenged his business with foreign governments, in effect, putting the case on hold, the Washington Post reports:

David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold)

NEW: Judge rules that @realdonaldTrump can appeal whether Congressional Dems have the right to sue him over the "Emoluments Clause." Which means the only surviving emoluments-clause lawsuit is now on hold.https://t.co/XwF8mmTxPW

The lawsuit was brought by more than 200 congressional Democrats who have alleged that Trump’s hotels and other companies should be barred from taking money from foreign states.

The judge’s decision today is a small win for Trump and yet another setback for Democrats and others who have been trying to prevent the president’s private businesses from accepting foreign governments’ payments.

Trump considering executive order to block refugees, report says

Hello - Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day. A new report says that the Trump administration is considering an executive order that would allow states and cities to deny entry to refugees who have been approved for resettlement:

Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley)

Exclusive: Trump admin considering executive order that would allow states and local jurisdictions to say no to taking in refugees. Experts say this would restrict future administrations from increasing the overall number resettled. https://t.co/aHmLc41flp

NBC News says it has seen a draft of the proposed executive order, which would undermine efforts to resettle refugees and could violate the intent of existing law that gives the federal government control over refugee policies.

This report follows a string of stories today on Trump’s escalating anti-immigrant agenda. The president claimed he was exploring ways to abolish birthright citizenship. His administration has also proposed a regulation that would allow the government to detain families crossing the border indefinitely.

The number of House members supporting the impeachment of Donald Trump has edged up to 127, after Rhode Island’s Jim Langevin announced his backing for impeachment this afternoon.

“The prospect of impeaching a President is not something I take lightly,” Langevin said in a statement.

“The power to remove a public official from office is one of the most significant constitutional powers held by Congress, and it must be reserved for extraordinary circumstances.

“After careful reflection and interaction with my constituents, I believe the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s actions is necessary to gather the evidence Congress needs to make this critical determination.”

According to Axios, 126 Democrats and one independent are now in favor of impeachment. Assistant Speaker Rep Ben Ray Luján, from New Mexico, came out in favor of an impeachment inquiry on Monday. Luján is the highest ranking Democrat so far to support impeachment.

Survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting have released a sweeping gun-control plan, which would ban assault-style weapons, institute a national buy-back program and boost federal funding for gun violence research.

The group’s leaders said they hope to halve US firearms deaths and injuries within a decade.

“The time for thoughts and prayers has come and gone. It is now time for real change and real action,” David Hogg, Parkland survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder, said in a statement.

The plan also calls on the government to automatically register all US citizens to vote when they turn 18, a measure that March for Our Lives has pushed in an effort to turn out the youth vote and sway elections to yield tighter gun policies.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, 69% of Americans said they support “strong” or “moderate” firearms restrictions and regulations, including 84% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans.

David Hogg, one of the leaders of the March For Our Lives movement. Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP

Summary

•Donald Trump has attacked the Danish prime minister, describing her as “nasty”. Trump said he cancelled his long-planned trip to Denmark because the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, criticized his attempt to buy Greenland as “absurd”. “I looked forward to going but I thought the prime minister’s statement that [Trump’s plan to buy Greenland] was ‘absurd’ [...] I thought it was nasty,” Trump said.

•In a busy day for Trump, he announced that the government is weighing whether to abolish birth right citizenship, calling the constitutional right “ridiculous”. The 14th amendment, passed after the civil war to ensure that black Americans had full citizenship rights, grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”. But Trump said: “We are looking at birthright citizenship very seriously. It’s frankly ridiculous.”

•During the same (impromptu) press conference, Trump doubled down on his antisemitic language. Asked about his remarks that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats were showing“either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty” – a longstanding antisemitic trope – the president simply repeated his statement. “If you vote for a Democrat you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters.

•A new government regulation would allow the government to detain families crossing the border indefinitely. The rule would abolish the current 20-day limit on how long families can be held in custody. It would effectively replace the decades old Flores agreement, which provided oversight on immigrant children being detained by the government.

Update: Trump has finished speaking in Kentucky. He didn’t mention the prime minister of Denmark, or birthright citizenship, or say anything antisemitic, which in light of the rest of his day, makes this an excellent speech.

The president walks off the stage to the Rolling Stones You Can’t Always Get What You Want – his campaign anthem, and a song the band has repeatedly asked him to stop using.